1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot apparatus of various forms having mechanical systems of different types arranged to use a command, which is independent from a mechanical system and which does not depend on the mechanical system, and enabled to be controlled by a common control system and to a control method therefor.
2. Description of Prior Art
Hitherto, a variety of robot apparatuses have been disclosed which include tired-robots capable of self-running by dint of the tires, and bipedal or quadrapedal walking robots, each of the foregoing robot apparatuses having various mechanical systems.
A robot apparatus of the foregoing type has a mechanical system in which actuators each having a predetermined degree of freedom and sensors for each detecting a predetermined physical quantity are disposed at predetermined positions. A control unit having a microcomputer individually operates the various actuators in accordance with outputs from the sensors and the control program. Thus, the self-running operation of the robot apparatus is permitted. Moreover, the robot apparatus performs a predetermined operation. The above-mentioned robot apparatus is assembled into a predetermined form in such a manner that various component units including a body, legs and a head maintain predetermined relative positions.
When a variety of robot apparatuses each having various mechanical systems are controlled, each robot apparatus must be controlled by using commands defined to correspond to the mechanical systems of the apparatus. It leads to a fact that a control program for each of the various robots each having different mechanical systems must be prepared even if a common operation, such as moving forwards, moving backward or stoppage, is performed.